Russia - 2 KOPECKS - 1976 - Coinstar Reject Finds

Hello everyone,
Passed by one of the Coinstar machine I frequent and saw a bunch of coins.
I grabbed them all. Most were normal US Coins. I never know why they would be rejected.



There were 3 Non US Coins.



2 different Euro Coins

And this 1976 - 2 Kopecks from Russia

 

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Curiously the 2 kopek coin was not uncommon mintage wise but it was a PITA to find in normal circulation. Usually when you got change in transactions you would get some combo of 1 or 3 kopek coins instead of the 2 kopek coin - for a good reason - 2 kopek coins tended to get "hoarded" because it was the price for a local phone call in the USSR until the end in 1991. The payphones were more common because a lot of people still didn't have a home phone and they were set up to only take 2 kopek coins.

It could be a pain getting coins in change in many places - as cashiers more often than not expected you to pay exact change as they were either informed to avoid handing out change or just did it because the system was not set up for businesses to get change from banks like in the USA.

It was an interesting experience because I was trying to hoard coins for my collection. Where I did get ahead though was you were "forbidden" to take ruble banknotes out of the country - they would not change them at the Valuta either but you could change the banknotes for coins - commemorative coins in ruble denominations and take the coins out of the country. That said I still surreptitiously exported some ruble notes for my collection.

The situation with small change was the same in Ukraine the first time I travelled there in 2001 - you either had to have exact change or expect to get no change when purchasing stuff.

But by 2008-2009 the situation with small change flip flopped. There really was too much of it and the hryvnia lost most of it's value starting in 2008 and people would gladly give you all the change in the till for a small purchase just to get rid of it. Literally the streets were littered with 1,2 and 5 kopek coins because they really had no practical value at all and were a nuisance - which is why I have a 2 kilogramme bag of Ukrainian coins.